ESA brings to each project a broad point of view that comes from over four decades of working with private developers, municipal utilities, the public, and federal, state, and local agencies coupled with the project-specific expertise and practical knowledge it takes to perform at the local level.

At ESA, we employ over 500 bright, creative, and dedicated professionals throughout our California, Florida, Oregon, and Washington offices. Ours is a top notch team widely recognized for technical excellence and solutions-based consulting.

ESA was founded in California in 1969, shortly before enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)—landmark laws that have greatly influenced environmental planning and analysis.

Bay Area Rapid Transit San Jose Extension Cultural Resource Studies

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is the fifth-busiest heavy-rail rapid transit system in the U.S., connecting four counties along 104 miles of track and 44 stations with a daily ridership average of 355,000 passengers. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (Santa Clara VTA) is working with BART to extend the existing track farther south into the Silicon Valley at San José.

ESA provided cultural and historic archaeological resources support, including pre-construction fieldwork and monitoring for the 16-mile San Jose extension and two new stations. The first phase of the Silicon Valley extension will continue the Warm Springs extension along 10 miles to the Berryessa neighborhood station in San José, linking the BART system to the Santa Clara VTA light rail. Funded by the Federal Transit Administration, the extension is expected to open to the public by late 2016.

ESA's cultural resources team worked with Santa Clara VTA and its construction contractors to reduce lengthy and unexpected delays due to cultural and archaeological sensitivities. From site evaluations and technical studies to onsite monitoring, our rapid response helped keep this important project on track.